When You Should Hire a Freelancer Instead

We receive many requests from folks who are potential clients, but we aren’t the best fit for them. Often people could benefit more from working with a single freelancer over using the services of a firm like ours. If any of these sound like you, don’t contact us, but sign up for freelancing sites like Upwork (formerly oDesk), Freelancer, or Elance instead. They will be a much better fit and could save you some serious money!

You need one little thing.

You need a single something small. It may be a letter, a blog post, or something else that is a singular one-time deal. Sure, you may need something in the future, but not the foreseeable future, so this one thing is your only ask. Not to be rude, we can probably do it, but it’s not really worth our time. That’s why we have a minimum amount paid as a deposit up-front for every client engagement, and if your invoices never equal that amount, we just keep that money.

You want to do something in a grey area.

Many freelancers just want the gig. They will deliver whatever you say. We are professionals with a reputation, damn it! If you ask us for something that goes against best practices, is unethical, or is otherwise a bad move, we are totally going to speak up and maybe even refuse to do what you want.

You want it done NOW!

You wouldn’t be our only client. Even if you are the only client for the person you are working with, his or her support system (assistants, schedulers, accountants, and supervisors) are working with other folks and there can be a bit of a lag. We are pretty darn prompt, but we can’t whip out a whole website worth of content in a week or create same day blog posts unless that’s what we contracted for. However, you can find a ton of freelancers to do that stuff!

You won’t pay a deposit or retainer.

Sorry, that’s not how we work. Every new client has to put something down, and that something is based on the work you are requesting. Presently the minimum amount we will request is $250, but it’s more for most contracts. Freelancers generally don’t do that, especially if you snag them on a freelancing site.

You only want to pay when the work is complete.

Some freelancers are okay with this, especially with small projects. But we bill you when we bill everyone else—after our pay periods close on the 14th and final day of the month. Because we have to continuously pay our team as they make progress on your project, you have to continually pay us.

You’re on a tight budget.

We pride ourselves on being a great value and competitively priced—when compared to other firms like ours. You can find freelancers offering varying degrees of quality for less. Sure, they don’t have a team of editors and other content experts working alongside them, and they may lack our levels of experience and expertise, but they fit your budget. And no, asking us to work really, really fast won’t help anything.

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